May 2021Vol. 22, No. 5Foster System Webinar Series

A series of four webinars is available from the Shriver Center on Poverty Law. These webinars focus on how Black communities, communities of color, and families living in poverty are overrepresented in the foster care system and the aspects of the social systems that contribute to this. The series includes the following webinars:

• "Moving From Why to How: Parent Leaders' Perspectives on the Movement for Child Welfare Justice"
• "Policing by Another Name: Mandated Reporting as State Surveillance"
• "The Carceral Web: How the Foster and Criminal Legal Systems Perpetuate Injustice"
• "Your Family or Its Health: Intersections Between the Healthcare and Foster Systems"

The webinars explain how the foster care and intersecting systems disproportionately affect families of color and those living in poverty. They also provide a look back at the history of the various systems and their components, such as mandated reporting and juvenile courts, to show system parallels and how their histories currently impact policies and families.

This series presents ideas to reimagine what support and accountability look like, how to create the conditions families need to thrive, and how to break down silos to turn these systems into a supportive network that strengthens everyone involved. The webinars also address the assumptions of how systems are supposed to work compared with the reality of how they do work.

The webinars are free to view, and slides are available for all four.